Machine Safety Resource Center

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Controls engineers need a variety of information on machine-safety topics.

Machine safety has become an even more important machine design concern as it must provide responsible protection for operators and technicians in a manner that keeps the machines running to the fullest degree possible with intelligent use of light curtains, interlock switches, safety relays, safety modules, programmable safety controllers, and other essential machine safety devices to monitor, prevent, and react to machine upsets.

Timely news, back-to-basics primers, feature articles, technical white papers and descriptions of the latest products all provide valuable insights that can be used in designing and building machine controls.

Lawyer Meets Machine
A Discussion of Product Liability Issues U.S. Manufacturers Face

Avoid a Pressing Problem
Aluminum Extruder Uses Smart Cameras to Prevent Machine Damage

Secure Against Process Automation Errors
What Kind of Prioritized Operator and Technician HMI Access Can Protect the Process and Still Give Links Needed to the Outside?

Design for TCO
How Do You Build a Machine That Reduces the Cost to Operate It? Learn How to Justify the Upfront Costs and Dazzle Your Customers

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White Papers: In Depth Research

Future Safety Design
Author: Omron
Posted: 09/19/2011
ISO 13849-1 is the most important standard for regulating the basic principles and performance required of a safety control systems for machines and devices. This standard was greatly revised in November 2006. This revision is expected to cause major changes in the fundamentals of safety system design. This document was prepared to help explain the content of the revision.

In considering safety protection in the measures to reduce machine risks, it has long been common practice to evaluate levels of risk reduction and the performance of a safety related control system in terms of Categories as specified in the international standard ISO13849-1: 199 (based on the European standard EN954-1).

A Category is a classification of the architecture (structure) of a safety related control system. The concept was originally based on established technologies using electromechanical components such as switched and relays and simple electrical components. The behavior of these control systems in the event of a component failure can be determined to a high level of certainty because the failure modes of these components can be completely defined.

The Seven Types of Power Problems
Author: Joseph Seymour, Schneider Electric
Posted: 05/16/2011
Many of the mysteries of equipment failure, downtime, software and data corruption, are the results of a problematic supply of power. There is also a common problem with describing power problems in a standard way. This white paper will describe the most common types of power disturbances, what can cause them, what they can do to your critical equipment, and hot to safeguard your equipment, using the IEEE standards for describing power quality problems.

Mean Time Between Failure: Explanation and Standards
Author: Wendy Torell and Victor Avelar, Schneider Electric
Posted: 05/16/2011
Mean time between failure is a reliable term used loosely throughout many industries and has become widely abused in some. Over the years the original meaning of this term has been altered which has led to confusion and cynicism. MTBF is largely based on assumptions and definition of failure and attention to these details are paramount to proper interpretation. This paper explains the underlying complexities and misconceptions of MTBF and the methods available for estimating it.

Drive-Based Integrity Safety
Author: John Krasnokutsky, Siemens
Posted: 05/10/2011
While safety functions have been integrated into drives packages for some years now, the current trends are very exciting, from many angles. Today, a full complement of safety functions can be implemented at the front-end of a system design on all types of production machines, including printing, packaging, converting, materials handling and other equipment used throughout American industry. This can be accomplished in full compliance with all the current regulations for machines used worldwide.

Furthermore, machine designers can look to a drive-based safety integrated protocol that has greater flexibility than ever before, both in terms of its mechanical footprint and component savings, owing to the various ancillary devices such as external contactors and redundant electromechanical safety devices, with all their inherent wiring, cabinet space and related cost.

This paper looks ahead to the ways today's advanced drive designs can be used to better implement the mandated safety functions on many types of production machines, including printing, packaging, converting, materials handling and others. Without the need for redundant or hard-wired back-up devices, or for safety functions being incorporated into a PLC or other motion controller, machine designers and end-users alike can benefit from fast, accurate and fully compliant safety features integrated directly into the machine's drives package. The result is more immediate detection and response, plus space-savings, wiring reduction, external component cost elimination and overall improved machine effectiveness in the critical areas of man and machine protection. Some emerging trends in drive-based integrated safety are detailed as well.

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